Best Ways to Farm Materials in Like a Dragon: Ishin

I don’t claim to know what goes into the creation of a katana or a pistol besides some manner of metal and/or plastic. That’s for the professionals to figure out, which is why in Like a Dragon: Ishin, you need to bring lots of different stuff to the blacksmith to make new weaponry. To aid in that process, here are the best ways to farm materials in Like a Dragon: Ishin.

Best Ways to Farm Materials in Like a Dragon: Ishin

In Like a Dragon: Ishin, in order to create new swords, guns, special weapons, and protective gear, you need to bring various kinds of materials to Kurogane Smithing and forge them together with base gear. While there’s a material vendor on standby at Kurogane that’ll sell you a few odds and ends, the vast majority of the materials you need will need to come from elsewhere.

Related: Like a Dragon: Ishin – Biggest Changes and Differences

Luckily, as you progress through the game, multiple avenues of accumulating materials will present themselves to you. As long as you don’t mind the occasional repetitive task, you can score most of the materials you need for basic creations, as well as some of the more advanced stuff if you’re lucky.

The best ways to farm materials in Like a Dragon: Ishin are:

• Random battles
• Another Life deliveries
• Trooper Battle Dungeons

Random Battles

Like in most Yakuza/Like a Dragon games, the city streets in Like a Dragon: Ishin are absolutely lousy with ill-mannered thugs who will pick a fight with Ryoma the moment they see him. While this can be a bit irritating if you’re trying to get somewhere, it may behoove you to teach them a quick lesson.

When you defeat thugs in random fights, they have a chance to drop material items, plus an extra item after the fight ends. The key here is to get a high rating for the fight; if you get the highest rating of “Godly,” for instance, you’re very likely to receive a rare, quality item upon the fight’s conclusion. Inflict long, powerful combos and try not to get hit yourself to get the best ratings.

Another Life Deliveries

After you gain access to the Another Life side-mode in Chapter 3, you can use the shelf in the house’s living room to have Haruka deliver items, crops, and cooked meals. Not only is this a good way to make money and required to progress on paying Haruka’s debt, it can also yield bonus goodies.

When you’re looking at the ledger, look for the little treasure box symbol on the right side of a delivery request. That symbol means you’ll get a tangible reward in addition to the usual payment. The more complex the delivery order, the better items you’ll receive.

Trooper Battle Dungeons

After Ryoma becomes the captain of the third division in Chapter 5, you’ll gain access to the Shinsengumi trooper barracks and Trooper Card system. Alongside this system, you’ll be introduced to the Trooper Battle Dungeons, self-contained dungeon-crawling missions where you need to defeat enemies, find items, or complete other objectives with the help of your troopers.

These dungeons are crammed full of materials. Most rooms of the dungeon have breakable boxes and pots that yield all kinds of materials in large quantities. You can actually check which materials spawn in a particular mission on the level select screen, so you can even go hunting for something specific. Even if you don’t find what you need, odds are good you’ll get plenty of other stuff to make up for it.

If you want to make the best possible gear at the blacksmith, you’ll want to gather all the miscellaneous junk you can find. As I said, I don’t know how the blacksmith uses all of it, but by gum, he’s good at it.

For more vital utilities in Like a Dragon: Ishin, check out our guides on improving Friendship Bonds and finding Bakumatsu Bob. Visit our Facebook page as well for more news and guides.